Orlando Fringe review: 'Lust'

So it's surprising at the top of ME Dance's Fringe Festival offering, titled "Lust," that the first dance has a feeling of lightness. Choreographer Marshall Ellis has given his proficient dancers pretty movements, but perhaps not very lustful ones.

The next piece, "After Sunrise," choreographed by Michael D. Tindal, is if anything even more playful — almost innocent.

Things finally heat up in Ellis' "Without You," a solo piece for Rachel McKeever, who displays both a passionate athleticism and an expressive face.

Ellis shows he can find the lust in less athletic moments in "The Passion." Dancer Shannon MacLoren, in a long dress, uses flowing movements to give the emotion a gracefulness.

Alexandra Schudde provides spoken-word commentary on the nature of lust between dances — an idea that holds possibility but is perhaps executed too simply here.

"Lust," of course, doesn't have to be sexual — lust for power, lust for life. We know the expressions. But this show, although intriguing in places, could use a little more firepower in its emotional arsenal.